Land of the Rising Thumb

The PSP is on fire in Japan. Not in a literal sense, you understand – that would be most upsetting – but insofar as it's blazing a trail to try and catch up with Japan's reigning king of handhelds: the DS Lite.

Sales of Sony's portable have zoomed to infinity (relatively speaking) since the redesigned Slim & Lite launched in October, and it's now shifting an average of 75,000 units each week (the DS Lite continues to weigh in with around 115,000 consoles sold weekly though, so there will be no bloody usurpation in the immediate future).

It's almost as though Sony's vision for the PSP in Japan, which initially seemed to be out of focus and impaired by cataracts the size – and shape – of PS3s, has finally cleared to reveal the simple, but winning concept of a powerful handheld console supplied with new triple-A games and cheapo downloadable versions of old PlayStation gems.

Everybody's Golf Portable 2, which is released here next week, will inevitably be a huge hit after receiving some 10/10 ratings in the Japanese press – and simply because it's a new Minna no Golf game, which the Japanese will always fall for. The original Minna no Golf Portable (Hot Shots Golf Open Tee in the west) remains my most played PSP game, so I'm more than happy to revisit the formula and stroll around all-new courses in virtual plus fours.

Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikada, which I'd translate as Surprisingly Impertinent Man of Valour (yep), is another of next week's PSP titles that has earned full marks from some Famitsu reviewers. It doesn't have any real heritage, and if I described it as "Mr Driller crossed with any SNES RPG and forced through a delicious C64-grade pixellator"… well, that wouldn't really help. Best just try the demo, really, which you can download here (put the file in a subfolder labelled 'NGPJ90009' within your PSP Memory Stick's 'Game' folder).

On the legitimate old games front (as opposed to the massively popular illegitimate PSP retro scene), the recent opening of an online PSP Store for PC access at last enables Japanese PSP owners to tap into Sony's PSone game archives without using a PS3. PSone classics such as Metal Slug and Raiden Project can be downloaded from Sony for just ¥600 (£2.70) a pop, and there are well over 100 titles available.

But just as Sony, at last, begins to deliver a great selection of PSP titles (both new and old), tacitly admitting that multimedia larks are fine but the games are the stars, Nintendo's DS Lite appears to be tiptoeing in the opposite direction, with Japanese company AM3 this week unveiling plans for a downloadable eBook and anime/movie service.

DSvision, as it's dubbed, will expand the DS Lite's storage space with an SD Card adapter, while AM3's download service, which will begin in Japan next March, will enable users to purchase contents that can be read/viewed on the DS Lite. It's fine in principle, but, suddenly it doesn't look so attractive next to the PSP's underworld of downloadable everything.

But then, it's another battle for these two to engage in. Will the fight never end?